> Apparently he hadn't quite retired and was still briefing western intelligence services He had stopped been a Russian agent in 2004. Then, after being releas

> Apparently he hadn't quite retired and was still briefing western intelligence services He had stopped been a Russian agent in 2004. Then, after being released from prison and moving to the UK, he had 8 years to brief the UK services about everything he knew. What kind of briefing could he do, exactly? Note that if you read carefully the article that you linked, it says repeatedly that none of Skripal's activity was new, or uncommon, or important. Despite the subheader saying "may offer motive for poisoning" the various experts mentioned in the article repeatedly say that those "neither explained nor justified the nerve agent attack", "dismissed them as a likely motive for the poisoning attack".